


The Little Merman

by rayraycash



Category: Little Mix (Band), One Direction (Band)
Genre: AU, M/M, human!zayn, merman!niall
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-22
Updated: 2014-02-04
Packaged: 2017-12-30 03:00:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1013283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rayraycash/pseuds/rayraycash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zayn's been staring at the ocean for as long as he can remember, but he's never seen anything quite like Niall before.</p><p>A merman AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this story is in response to a prompt that can be found here: http://indigostuff.tumblr.com/post/63909398443/the-little-merman
> 
> and it was prompted on tumblr by indigostuff who can be found here: http://indigostuff.tumblr.com/
> 
> I'm already kind of in love with this idea so I hope it doesn't suck. Thanks for reading and please leave lots of comments!

“We shouldn’t be here…” Harry mumbled, swimming around the rock that Niall was currently lounging on.

“Shut up, we’re fine,” Niall responded lazily, splashing his tail into the water.

Harry sputtered back when he took a splash to the face, and then glared up at his friend.

“What if Louis finds out? He’ll never let us leave his sight,” Harry muttered angrily but already giving up this losing battle.

Truthfully, Niall did what he wanted to do and that was it. Harry tagged along and was probably the most fretful little fish in the ocean, but he was loyal, and Niall knew that’d he was too scared of getting in trouble to confess anything.

“Can we please enjoy the sunlight, just this once, without you bringing up Louis?” Niall sighed dipping one of his arms over the rock and into the water, watching it warp in time with the waves.

“We get plenty of sunlight at the palace. Your dad made sure of that with his pointy thing.”

“Trident,” Niall let out a puff of air as he watched Harry lap the rock he was lounging on a couple more times.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. He waved the pointy thing and now you’ve got sunlight. He did that for you Niall.”

“Maybe it isn’t good enough. I like feeling dry, it’s nice. And the sun up here is warm,” Niall explained himself.

“Sun makes your hair turn funny colors though. I don’t like it, looks white almost,” Harry whined still lapping the rocks, getting faster and faster though he kept his slow drawl.

“You can always go back, you know. I’m not stopping you,” Niall simply suggested to his fishy friend, which did, indeed, make him stop.

“Niiiiiiaaaaallllll,” Harry moaned.

He wasn’t going anywhere without Niall. He never did.

Niall didn’t respond to his friend, only continued lounging on the rocks. Harry, upon realizing that he wasn’t winning this battle, started circling again, one fin stuck from the water like an oddly colored shark approaching its prey.

They stayed this way for a little while longer, Niall relaxing and Harry taking laps. When Niall was about to announce that he was ready to go back, though, he heard the distinct sound of a growling, sputtering boot mentor. At least, Niall is pretty sure that’s what it’s called.

Harry shot his face out of the water suddenly when he heard the noise as well.

“No, Niall. That thing almost cut your tail off last time!” Harry warned, but it was no use.

Niall stared off into the distance, the direction of the boot. Before Harry could speak any more, Niall was leaping off the rocks into speeding into the sea.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it…” Harry mumbled to himself as he sped off, following his prince.

 

Zayn loved the ocean. He loved it more than anything else in the world. It was the one place he could always find peace. Back a few years ago when his mother died, Zayn had gone out every morning to sit on the docks and watch the waves crash into the beach, wiping everything clean, making a fresh start. Now that he was big enough though, Zayn would drive his father’s boat, well more like yacht, out onto the water and watch across the expanse of it all. He felt small on the ocean, like anything that he did wasn’t really that big of a deal. It was a nice feeling, like relief, like nothing he did was really as big a choice as he thought. It was nice.

Zayn cut the motor now that he was far enough out and walked to the edge of the boat, looking out into the sea. It was the same deep blue that it always was, dark and mysterious.

After a few minutes of just staring, Zayn walked over to his backpack and grabbed his sketch pad and pencils before walking back over to the edge. He stared out into the sea and took a deep breath. Almost instantly his mind’s eye produced a large serpent jumping form the rippling surface. Zayn pictured the serpent jumping out at a human form, Poseidon, who stood on the surface with an air of such grace and confidence. The god didn’t even flinch as the great beast leapt at him, he only held his hand up.

When Zayn stared down at his paper again he could see with an even greater clarity exactly what he wanted. He started to sketch the scene onto the blank surface, desperately wanting to catch at least the main outlines before the image was lost from his mind. Every so often, Zayn would glance back out at the ocean, though his mind refused to recreate the scene he wanted. It was one of these times that Zayn saw it.

Something broke the surface of the water for a moment. It didn’t look familiar. Zayn had spent a lot of time staring at the sea, and he was even studying marine biology at university, but he’d never seen something like that before.

It looked like a really long tail, but it was a blue-ish green color, and it was shimmering. For a moment Zayn thought he’d just imagined it, but then it appeared again and it was getting closer.

His drawing forgotten, Zayn dropped his sketch pad and ran to his backpack to grab his camera. He sprinted back and slammed into the side of the boat, almost throwing himself overboard in his haste.

The slight splash of water a few meters from him had Zayn blindly snapping pictures of the shimmering creature. Zayn reached up and pushed his Ray Bans on top of his head so he could get a better look through the camera lens. A thump at the base of the boat had him shooting his head over the edge though, and snapping more pictures.

Zayn’s sharp movements caused his sunglasses to fall off the top of his head and hit the water, way too far down to reach. A small curse left Zayn’s lips as he watched his favorite glasses begin to sink. A gasp soon followed though, when a pale face appeared under the surface. Blue eyes gazed straight into Zayn’s sole as he couldn’t pull himself away. A hand, just as pale as the face reached out and grabbed the Ray Bans before disappearing into the depths of the ocean.

Zayn hadn’t even realized he had been snapping pictures. He’d been staring through the lens of his camera. Was he going crazy? Did he really just see a face?

Zayn sat back down on the bench and stared back out to where he’d first seen the shimmering. It was probably some kind of fish, right? Maybe a dolphin or something. It was just shimmering because it was wet, right?

Zayn sat and stared, everything else forgotten for a long time. He sat and stared for hours. It wasn’t until the sun was directly in his eyes did Zayn realize that, whatever it was, if it even really existed, wasn’t coming back.

He picked everything up, loaded away his things and started the boat back up to head to shore.

 

“Niall! Why did you do that! What if it saw you!?” Harry shouted as the pair swam back to the palace.

“I don’t think it had eyes. It looked really funny,” Niall said back, analyzing the thing in his hands, “I wonder what this is for.”

“Does it matter? You shouldn’t have taken it! You stole from that human! It’ll surely come and kill you now. Oh no, what if it kills me too? What am I supposed to do Niall? I don’t want to die!”

“Calm down. I already told you, the thing didn’t have eyes. It didn’t see us, now help me figure out what to do with this,” Niall spoke holding out the object to get a better look.

Niall wrapped the strange object around his hand, but it immediately slipped off. He examined the thing more closely, looking through the glass.

“Why’d they make the glass dark?” Niall asked his friend and Harry sighed loudly as he fought to keep up with the speeding merman.

“The thing had it on it’s head right before you swam into the boot,” Harry confessed and Niall came to a complete and sudden stop, making Harry swim straight into him.

Niall brought the thing up and sat it atop his head like the crown his father, Liam, wore and smiled proudly.

“Like a crown! What if that human was the king of the humans! Now we have his crown!” Niall shouted proudly, spinning in a circle to display his ‘human crown.’

“Then it really will come to kill us…” Harry whined sadly as he watched his prince spin delightedly.

 

Zayn arrived back to his house a few hours later, not being able to stop himself from picturing that pale face. He’d convinced himself on the ride back that’d he’d been hallucinating and had gone as far as to think he’d just been out in the sun too long. His sunglasses fell into the ocean and they sank, that’s what happened. There was no face, or hand, or… tail? Was that a tail he had seen?

Yes, it was the tail of a fish. It was the tail of a fish, and there was no face or hands because human faces and hands don’t come with fish tails. They just don’t.

Zayn collapsed on his couch and pulled his backpack open. He’d been working on a sketch before this whole mind fucking thing happened and hopefully he’d gotten enough lines to start detailing. As Zayn was pulling the sketch book out though, his camera fell onto the couch.

For a few seconds, Zayn considered not looking at the pictures, suddenly scared of what he might find, but then he realized how ridiculous he was being. He would look through the pictures and there would be nothing but water and he could let this whole thing go.

He turned on the camera and clicked the gallery. The first picture was nothing, just water and the side of the boat. The next was exactly the same. The third picture though, had Zayn gasping again. It was hair, light purple-ish hair. After a few seconds Zayn dared to click next and when he did the camera nearly dropped from his hands. It was a face, a very clearly human, pale face with bright blue eyes. The exact same face that had been etched to the back of Zayn’s eyelids since he’d seen it the first time.

It took a few minutes for Zayn to catch his breath again, but when he did he stared at that picture. He stared at it for hours, feeling like if he looked away it would disappear like the real thing had. Finally, though, Zayn turned the camera off and looked up and around his living room. Everything was still and silent as he stared.

“It was a merman,” Zayn whispered into the quiet room, “I saw a merman today.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhh!!! New chapter! Sorry it's been a while since I updated! I'm still trying to create a schedule.

“I’m going to snap your tail off if you don’t stop,” Louis muttered as Niall swam too close and almost knocked him off his perch for the third time.

“Yeah, yeah,” Niall dismissed the threat as he kept swimming around the large room.

Niall was rearranging all his human things around his shelves, trying to make room for the crown. Louis had come up to make sure that Niall hadn’t actually been to the surface to get this new item.

“Where did you even get this anyway?” Louis asked, scuttling along the flat surface he was sitting on.

“I found it while me a Harry were out yesterday. We think it’s a crown,” Niall proclaimed happily putting the thing on top of his head.

Louis laughed at this and propelled himself up to Niall’s face only to push the thing down over his eyes.

“It’s called glasses. They protect human’s eyes from the sun,” Louis informed him and Niall scrunched his face up in confusion.

“But humans don’t have eyes,” Niall spoke, remembering the human from the day before and how it didn’t have anything that resembled eyes on its face.

“Yes they do, they look just like you from the tail up,” Louis commented as he floated back down.

Niall gave him another curious look, almost about to question Louis further before thinking better of it. Louis didn’t need to know that Niall had seen a real human.

“Harry and I are going to go out again later,” Niall told his crab friend.

“Really? Where are you going?” Louis asked back.

Niall suddenly wished he had chosen a different phrasing, or maybe a bit better timing. Louis always seemed to know when Niall was up to something.

“You know, around. We’ve got to try this thing out!” Niall exclaimed, pointing at the strange human object, “The sun will be coming out soon.”

Louis nodded but Niall knew better than to think he’d convinced his keeper. Louis may be a crab, but he was sneaky as an eel sometimes, and he always knew when Niall was getting into trouble.

“Your father will be notified,” Louis responded, eyes narrowed as he stared at the prince.

His expression very clearly stated, “I know you’re up to something you shouldn’t be, but I’m going to trust that you won’t get yourself killed in the process”. Niall had become very familiar with that look over the years.

Niall nodded and turned to put the object back down on his dresser.

 

Zayn was actually a good student most of the time. He went to classes, completed assignments on schedule, and did well on exams. He was good at school, but there were some days when he just couldn’t stand it. The few days following his merman encounter were probably the worst for his ability to focus.

This particular Monday morning, Zayn decided to skip his organic chemistry class in favor of getting back out onto the ocean. He’d catch up later, after he’d solved this merman mystery that was going crazy in his brain.

It was foggy when Zayn headed out into the sea. The sun was just beginning to peak the horizon behind him as Zayn loaded himself onto the yacht. His father would probably take away his key if he knew Zayn was going out in this weather, but Zayn pushed that thought from his head. Everything he did now was focused around that merman, and seeing him again.

The fog was beginning to lift when Zayn reached the spot he believed to be where he’d seen the creature. A strange haze was still hanging around though, almost like the fog had crept into Zayn’s brain and hadn’t been able to find a way out. The familiar boat seemed strange to the boy as he looked around it, but he paid no mind to that either.

A quick walk to the deck was all the moving Zayn did before pulling out a pair of binoculars and leaning against the wall keeping Zayn from the water.

He’d been out here every day since he’d seen it. Two weeks full of trips out into the open seas after class and all day on the weekends. He needed to find that merman again. He needed to know that what he’d seen, and gotten a picture of, was real. 

Zayn was prepared to wait it out, like every other trip he’d made out, but he didn’t have to. Only a few minutes after Zayn began staring out into the water, he saw the same glittering tail splash from the water. It was too big to be a fish. This was it. It was the merman.

Zayn suddenly felt a rush of panic as the tail disappeared under the water again. What was he going to do? Catch it? Get a better picture? Anything?

The tail burst from the water again, rapidly approaching the side of the boat. It went down again only to pop back up a moment later. This time it wasn’t just the tail though. A human head and torso shot out of the water into the air, followed by the tail. Zayn gasped at the sight, not knowing what this meant, and if this was real. How could it be real? Was he so obsessed with finding a merman that his mind had created one to see?

The merman disappeared under the water as quickly as he’d risen, still pointing toward the yacht. Zayn was still frozen, watching everything around him in slow motion. A flash of glittering scales appeared above the water one more time, only a few meters from the boat. Then, a loud bang could be heard and Zayn felt the yacht rock slightly.

Before Zayn’s mind could put together what this meant, he saw a pale torso floating toward the surface. Another gasp escaped Zayn’s lips as he tore the binoculars from his face and tossed them down. He pulled his shirt, jeans, and shoes off before diving straight in, without thinking of anything else.

Once Zayn hit the water though, he realized his mistake. He’d only recently forced himself to learn how to swim, and still wasn’t very good. Jumping overboard to ‘save’ a very potentially dangerous mythical creature that may or may not be a figment of his imagination probably wasn’t the best life choice he could’ve made. He didn’t really have time to think it over though, because the pale body was beginning to sink, and if it went to far Zayn knew he wouldn’t be able to reach it.

He struggled to swim over and wrap an arm around the waist and began tugging to the back of the yacht where the ladder was. Water crashed into Zayn’s face as he desperately tried to paddle his way around the boat. The dead weight of the sea creature was slowly sinking the longer Zayn tried to carry it along behind him. He began sinking himself, head dipping below the water, him gasping for breath when he emerged again.

The ladder was only a few meters away but it felt like hours before Zayn could finally get a grip on the bottom rung. It took a great deal of effort, but finally Zayn managed to pull himself up and onto the lower deck while holding onto the merman. He gave one last yank to completely emerge the sea being from the water and up on the deck with him, face down.

Zayn stumbled back and fell onto his arse as he stared. It was a merman. The upper body was pale and smooth and flawlessly human apart from the very pale lavender hair. At the hips though, pale skin turned into glittering scales that shimmered purple and blue-green in the sun that was just now barely peeking through the fog.

A shiver ran up Zayn’s back as a cold wind blew over the boat, making bumps rise in his skin. He didn’t dare take his eyes off the merman though. He wouldn’t ever look away if he didn’t have to.

It could have been hours later, or maybe only moments, Zayn isn’t sure, but suddenly the merman’s body shook and a cough sounded from it followed by a wheeze and a gasp. Zayn sprung forward then, scared that it was choking or something equally as bad. He rolled the merman over only to gasp when he saw that his Ray Bans were placed over the merman’s eyes. Zayn stared, confused, but intrigued by this strange creature that was still wearing his glasses from two weeks ago.

“What’s going on,” the merman croaked out and Zayn shot back again.

“Wha-…” Zayn breathed out, heart pounding as the merman began pushing himself up with his hands.

“Wait! You’re the Human Prince! You have got eyes!” the merman shouted once he looked up at Zayn again.

“I’m not- I’m- I’m not,” Zayn stuttered.

His eyes were wide, blown with fear at this strange new creature that spoke English. How did mermen know English?

“Then what’s this?” the merman shot back pointing at Zayn’s glasses, “I took ‘em and now you wrangled me up on yer boot ta get ‘em back? Well I ain’t givin’ ‘em back without a fight!”

“Boot?” Zayn whispered the question, so confused, but that quickly disappeared when the merman jumped at him, well, more like flopped.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stay back! Stay away from me!” Zayn shouted frantically pushing himself back until his back hit the ladder to climb to the top deck.

“You going to come get your crown Human Prince?!” The merman shouted again, flopping closer and closer to Zayn.

This entire thing was turning into something out of a horror movie. Merpeople were supposed to be nice or at least scared. What was wrong with this one?

Zayn turned and scrambled up the ladder, still soaking wet and in nothing but his boxers. The merman continued flopping after him until it had reached the ladder. It grabbed the bottom rung and started pulling up, dragging its tail along behind it.

“What do you want?!” Zayn cried, grabbing a fishing pole that was beside him and jabbing it at the aggressive creature.

Zayn was secretly hoping that whatever instincts that tell fish to bite on to a hook would be present in this merman and it would bite the pole and therefore become useless. He only realized how ridiculous that plan was when the merman grabbed the end of the pole and tugged back, causing Zayn to almost fall down the ladder once again. He released the pole and watched as the merman threw it overboard.

“Your weapons are no match for me human!” the merman shouted triumphantly.

Zayn felt a bit queasy. The creature began pulling itself back up the ladder and Zayn stumbled back even more. He reached his pile of clothes that he’d abandoned earlier and momentarily contemplated throwing a boot at the thing.

“Do you even care about your crown Prince?!” it shouted once it had pulled itself over the ledge and onto the top deck. 

Zayn was shaking now, terrified of what would happen now. He was stranded on this boat with a murdering merman. There was no way out.

The thing flung itself further once more causing Zayn to flinch and it to stare strangely at him.

“What’s wrong with you?” it asked.

Zayn stared at him for a few more seconds and took a shuddering breath. This was it, he was going to beg for his life. He didn’t have a choice.

“Don’t hurt me,” Zayn spouted out quickly and the merman froze.

It was still staring through the lenses of Zayn’s favorite customized Ray Bans. It almost seemed to be searching for something but Zayn had no idea what.

Another cold breeze blew by and bumps rose on Zayn’s skin. When he looked more carefully, he saw that the merman was shivering as well. Zayn looked down at his pile of clothes he’d shed earlier and back to the merman. He tentatively reached down and grabbed his tank top off the deck.

The merman’s head tilted to the side as Zayn began slowly crawling over to it, not wanting to set it into another rage like earlier.

“Here you go,” Zayn whispered when he was close enough to hand over the shirt, “It’ll keep you warm.”

The merman extended a hand out as well and took the shirt. He stared down at it silently before unfolding it and examining the material.

After a minute or two Zayn watched as the merman pulled the shirt over its head and onto its pale torso. It then looked up at Zayn once more and its face squished up as if squinting really hard. Before Zayn could say anymore though, the merman pulled Zayn’s glasses off its face and held them out to Zayn.

Zayn stared into the clear blue eyes as he reached out and grabbed his glasses. The merman’s lips curled up on the edge to smile slightly when Zayn accepted the glasses and placed them on his on face.

“Well played, Prince,” the merman chuckled.

Then, just as quickly as he appeared from the ocean, the merman flopped himself over to the edge of the yacht and catapulted off into the water. Zayn probably couldn’t have stopped the creature even if he had tried.

He got up and walked over to the edge of the yacht where he’d last seen the merman and looked out. There wasn’t even a ripple where the creature had disappeared into the surface, just calm waves, rocking slowly and gently, as far as Zayn could see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought we should change it up a bit. The merperson is usually the one scared and flinchy and just in general very hesitant. This time it's the human! A novel concept, I'd say! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Comment and leave kudos if you'd like! I love seeing them!


	3. Chapter 3

“Are you an idiot?!” Harry shouted when Niall made it to where he’d been safely waiting.

“It has eyes, Harry!” Niall shouted excitedly, ignoring the obvious distress in his fishy friend.

“So! You talked to it! You stole from it!” Harry frantically gestured at the strange material hanging off of Niall’s usually naked torso.

“No, we traded. I gave it back its crown for this human armor. It felt strange when it handed it to me. It wasn’t as smooth as it is now,” Niall commented, rubbing the material floating around him.

“You can’t just talk to humans, Niall!” Harry cried out, not liking at all that Niall wasn’t grasping the severity of this situation.

“You spend too much time with Louis,” Niall waved off his friend and began swimming back toward home.

“I do not!” Harry squeaked back, swimming along behind his prince, “I care about your safety!”

“Yeah, sure,” Niall laughed and turned back to look at his friend, “It speaks the same as we do, you know. It could understand me and everything.”

“Stop,” Harry groaned and Niall chuckled awkwardly.

“What?”

“You like it. Stop that,” Harry whined and Niall could feel a bit of a blush creep onto his cheeks before he turned back and began swimming again.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Niall felt the smile tugging at his lips when he thought of the human, but he kept a straight face.

“Niiiiiiiiaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllllllllll,” Harry drawled and Niall laughed, “why do you like the human?! It doesn’t even have gills! How could it live underwater?”

“That’s why humans don’t live underwater, Harry, because they don’t have gills.”

“I don’t trust things that don’t have gills!”

“Well I didn’t ask you to trust him.”

Harry froze at that, watching, with huge eyes as his prince swam ahead of him. Harry raced then to get in front of Niall’s face and stopped abruptly. He’s lucky Niall was paying attention to stop in time.

“Humans are _its_ Niall, not _hims_.”

Harry’s face looked mildly scary, like a baby puffer fish that was about to blow.

“He looked like me though, how can he not be a him?”

“Except _**it**_ had legs, and weapons. That human could hurt you,” Harry spoke a little softer now and Niall’s heart ached for his friend.

Harry had lost his dad to humans when he was young. Harry had been with him and had barely escaped the net, his dad wasn’t so lucky. No one ever heard from him again.

“He wasn’t mean though, Harry. I thought he would attack me to get his crown back, but he didn’t. He got scared when I got closer to him. He could’ve hurt me, but he didn’t,” Niall confessed to Harry and Harry’s skeptical expression didn’t change.

“Then why’d he drag you up on his boot?”

“I don’t know. I swam into it again and knock myself cold. When I came to I was on top of it.”

“You swam into it again?” Harry laughed at this and Niall blushed a little and swatted at the fish.

“It’s a lot bigger underwater than it looks,” Niall defended himself against Harry’s laughter, “Oi! Shut it fishy!”

Harry calmed himself down now and just smiled at his friend.

“Just don’t get too comfortable with the human, yeah? That’s always when things get you,” Harry told Niall and Niall nodded.

“Yeah, promise. Now let’s go home. I’ve got to find somewhere to put this armor.”

Harry smiled brighter at his prince before following him off into the ocean, trusting that Niall wouldn’t make the wrong choice.

 

Zayn was obsessed. He thought that he had been obsessed before, when he’d been almost positive he was just hallucinating, but he was wrong. Every second of every day Zayn was either on the ocean looking for that merman, in class drawing that merman, or sleeping and dreaming about that merman. His every thought was consumed by the need to see it again.

It spoke that same language as him! It could breathe air just like it could breathe water! It was strong, and aggressive and passionate! One particular still shot that was etched into Zayn’s memory was the moment when he’d just accepted the sunglasses from it. There was a hint of a smile playing on the merman’s lips that Zayn couldn’t help but love. What fascinated him the most though, were those eyes. The merman’s were clear blue, like glowing sapphires that shone brightly in the sunlight. Zayn was half convinced that those eyes were what had him so transfixed on the merman.

“Mate, if you don’t pay attention you’re going to fail the next exam,” Ed whispered from beside Zayn in his biology class.

Zayn had been drawing that face all class. Choosing to leave out the tail while in public, as if drawing a merman were any more embarrassing than drawing a very attractive shirtless boy, Zayn was now shading in around the eyes. Ed had been staring, Zayn knew that, but also didn’t care.

“I’ll learn it later,” Zayn mumbled back, beginning to shade in some hair.

Ed waited a few more seconds before leaning over the space between the pair and getting a better look at the drawing.

“So who’s the new muse?” Ed chuckled and Zayn pulled the paper away a bit protectively.

“Don’t know his name,” Zayn supplied easily and heard Ed fight back a laugh.

Ed scooted back over to his space on the table and Zayn moved the paper back to center.

“He’s one of those then?” Ed asked knowingly and Zayn just nodded.

Ed had written his last three songs about a girl he’d passed on the street in London one day. In Zayn’s opinion, they were his best works so far. This was different though. Zayn had had an encounter with a mythical being that may or may not have hypnotized him into obsession with its sapphire eyes. Ed was just weird.

“Something like that,” Zayn replied anyway because the last thing he wanted to do was try to explain his life right now.

“Where’d you see him?” Ed asked, slowly creeping back into Zayn’s personal space.

Zayn didn’t look up from shading more of the hair than was really necessary while he thought of a lie.

“Beach,” Zayn answered.

It wasn’t really a big lie, just a little bit of one.

“Ah, that why he’s topless?”

“Yeah,” Zayn responded and secretly hoped that Ed had done enough prying for one class.

“There any reason you aren’t drawing the rest of the body?” Ed asked slyly and Zayn said the first thing that popped into his mind.

“Cause that’d be inappropriate,” Zayn fixed Ed with a devilish smirk for a moment before returning to the drawing.

“And you never got his name? Zayn Malik, I thought you were a gentleman,” Ed chuckled and Zayn let out a bit of a smile.

“Yeah, yeah.”

Ed laughed a bit more and slid back to his place. He didn’t bother Zayn again the rest of class and gave him a simple, “Good luck with that one, Mate,” as they separated to go home for the day. Zayn didn’t stay home though. As soon as he got there he dumped his things, grabbed his other bag that he was secretly calling his merman hunting bag, and headed right back out, on his way to the ocean. 

It was the same every day. He hadn’t seen anything else in a week since pulling the merman above deck, but that didn’t stop him from looking. Yeah, Zayn was obsessed, and he knew it, but he didn’t really care. He just wanted to see that merman again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was kind of just filler. Just setting up for another meeting! Hope you all enjoyed it! Thank you all for the lovely comments! I love reading them!


	4. Chapter 4

Zayn’s obsessive stalking of the ocean paid off two weeks after his last merman encounter. 

He was out on open water, about the same place as always, when he saw the familiar shimmering splash in the water. Zayn jumped from his seat, letting his drawing pad and pencils that had been resting in his lap fall to the deck. Not giving those things any mind, Zayn grabbed his camera and quickly stepped to the edge of the boat.

Zayn waited then, beginning to question if he’d actually seen what he thought he did. There was usually more than one appearance above water. Zayn still waited, camera gripped firmly in his hands, eyes searching for any sign of movement. All he saw though was the constant swaying of the ocean. Zayn exhaled a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and began to take a step back.

“Hey!”

Zayn jumped back and let out a startled yelp when he heard the shout. His head shot down to where the sound came from and there it was, the merman. Zayn couldn’t help the smile on his face at finally seeing the creature again. It felt like some kind of release.

Without really even thinking about it, Zayn brought his camera up to snap a picture. When he did, the merman let out a yelp before disappearing under the water. Zayn pulled the camera away from his face frantically, searching the water once more.

“I just want to talk Human Prince! I’m not here to take your crown!”

Zayn heard the voice and snapped his head around. The merman had popped up about 10 meters the Zayn’s right. The smallest sigh of relief passed Zayn’s lips. He hadn’t scared it away completely, but it did look scared now.

“I know you can talk, Prince! I heard you!” the merman shouted, not quite as loudly as before, when Zayn still didn’t respond, too busy staring.

Zayn shook himself out of the trance to answer back.

“I’m not a prince.”

All traces of fear disappeared as the merman twisted his face in shocked confusion, at Zayn’s words. Then his eyes squinted in skepticism.

“Then why’d you have a crown and armor?”

“I don’t.”

“Don’t lie to me!”

The shout was so sudden and unexpected that Zayn startled and took a step away from the railing. He felt his heart begin to race as it had the last time he’d seen this creature. His face must have shown his fear because a few moments later the merman raised his nose a little higher than necessary to look at Zayn. He puckered his lips slightly and squinted his eyes again, giving Zayn a thoughtfully look before speaking.

“I am sorry Human Prince. I am just not used to your human antics. I am also a prince. I can understand your reluctance to share information with me for both our safety’s,” the merman spoke in such an eloquent tone that Zayn was wondering if it was even the same creature as the one who had yelled.

“Of Atlantis?” Zayn couldn’t stop himself from asking. He felt silly when he did, but the merman’s face lit up in a smile.

“You know it?!”

“It really exists?”

“Of course it does! I live there!”

Zayn isn’t sure what he was expecting, really, but the smile that was plastered across the merman’s face looked magical. It almost appeared as though the creature’s teeth were shimmering in the sunlight like his scales do. Zayn looked warily at the strange smile but could help the corners of his mouth beginning to tug upward as well.

“It’s under the sea?” Zayn asked and the merman smiled brighter.

It splashed its arms up with a loud, boisterous laugh and then brought those arms down to clutch his stomach. Zayn had no idea what was so funny, but he supposed a happy merman was better than the aggressive one he had seen the last time.

Just as suddenly and unexpectedly as the laughter had come, it was over and the merman was staring at Zayn again. It was red faced and breathing a little heavier than before, but that didn’t take away from the shimmering teeth and bright aura Zayn was feeling.

“Say! What’s your name, Human Prince?”

“Zayn Malik.”

The merman smiled at this now too. The laugh that followed was smaller, more confined, than the last, but it was still laughter. It sounded a little like music to Zayn’s ears.

“What’s your name?”

“Niall,” The merman said back with a bright smile.

“Niall what?”

“Just Niall.”

They were both grinning like little schoolgirls now and Zayn was beginning to feel a bit embarrassed by it.

“Where is your kingdom?!” Niall shouted when Zayn didn’t say anything else.

“I don’t have a kingdom.”

“What do you mean? You have a crown!”

Niall looked genuinely offended by Zayn’s lack of a kingdom. Now that Zayn knew the merman’s name though, he was a lot less scary. He was cute, actually.

“I don’t have a crown,” Zayn responded with a slight frown when he processed Niall’s words.

“Then what did I give you when I was on your boot before? You gave me armor and I gave you back your crown.”

Niall seemed rather defensive about this point. Zayn was a little scared to fight him, scared that the terrifying merman from before would appear again.

Niall was in the water this time though, and Zayn was a bit more prepared. He figured it was a safe argument.

“Those were my sunglasses, and I gave you a tank top, not armor. And this is called a boat,” Zayn projected down to the merman whose face twisted in confusion.

“Sunglasses? Tank top? Boat? You have strange words Zayn Malik,” Niall spoke but he was laughing all the while. He seemed to be delighted by this new information.

“We have crowns and armor and boots too, they’re just different things.”

Niall shook his head back and forth with a bit of a giggle still escaping him. His pale face was flushing red again from laughter. Zayn smiled at him, amused by this adorable sea creature that seemed to be glowing with happiness. He was such a drastic comparison to the merman that Zayn had encountered before.

“Are there other mermen like you?” Zayn felt bold enough to ask as Niall was stilling from his giggle fit.

“There are lots of us! How many humans do you have?” Niall asked, suddenly intrigued.

“There are 7 billion humans,” Zayn answered and Niall’s eyes widened in wonder.

“How did you count that high?”

Now it was Zayn’s turn to laugh. Niall blushed a bit from embarrassment, but his didn’t shy away like Zayn probably would have.

Zayn was about to give a response but before he could a brightly colored fish jumped out of the water and dived straight into Niall’s face. Niall sputtered back slapping the fish away looking disgusted and shocked all at once. Zayn could help but burst out laughing at the sight. Niall’s face softened a little when Zayn laughed, but he didn’t look as carefree as he had moments ago.

The fish surfaced again, this time just peaking above the water and making an interesting series of clicks and screeching noises. Niall’s face drooped slightly as he watched the fish then glanced back up at Zayn.

“Fine Harry,” Niall pouted.

The fish seemed to do some sort of head nod and turned to look at Zayn. If he didn’t know any better, Zayn could’ve sworn that that fish was glaring at him. Did fish have the ability to glare?

“I have to get home now, Zayn Malik,” Niall torn Zayn’s attention away from the strange little fish and back to the merman.

The sudden realization that Niall was leaving made Zayn panic.

“Wait, when will you be back?”

A smile lit up Niall’s face once again as he stared at Zayn.

“Tomorrow, same time.”

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow, Niall.”

“You will, Zayn Malik.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They know each others names now! YAY! Tell me what you thought about it! I love reading all your comments! Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

Zayn isn’t exactly sure how it all passes so quickly, but soon enough it’s been three straight weeks of meeting Niall at the same time in the same place every day. Niall is just funny, and witty, and so damn adorable that Zayn can’t even stand it sometimes. 

And Niall is always acting so sure of himself, like he knows everything there is to know in the world. This would usually annoy Zayn, but Niall is different. Besides the fact that he has a tail, Niall is an exception to everything Zayn has ever liked in a person. He’s loud and persistent and curious and Zayn is positive that Niall actually doesn’t know how to stop talking for any longer than the time it takes Zayn to answer a question. Despite all of that, Zayn really likes spending time with this mythical creature.

“What’s it feel like, having legs and all?” Niall asked one day as they were lounging on top of the yacht.

This had become their main past time. Laying around and just talking. Niall would tell Zayn about his home and his father, who Zayn might actually be a bit terrified of, and Zayn would talk about his home and university. The two could spend hours talking, just laying out.

Some days though, they would swim. Niall could swim faster than anything Zayn had ever seen. Zayn was positive that Niall was faster than any Olympic swimmer.

No matter what the pair did though, it always came back to the same conversation. One of them, it alternated between them, would be describing something and would smile a little and look over and say, “I just wish you could see it.”

Then the air between them would get a little tense, and the breeze would still be blowing but it would suddenly feel colder than it had a minute ago. They would both look away from each other and wait patiently for the moment to pass, and it would. It always passed, and the air would be lighten again and they would breathe easier.

“I dunno. What’s it feel like having a tail?” Zayn asked back, suddenly curious.

“Just feels normal. An aunt of mine had a baby once and his tail was split right up the center. Some kind of defect. He can’t swim as fast as the rest of us. Lot of talk that he might be half human actually. Auntie always did like spending her time alone,” Niall rambled on.

Zayn had never heard of such a thing. There was never a human born with a tail to his knowledge. How did mermen even have sex? He’d been spending hours with Niall and hadn’t once seen anything resembling a penis. Maybe they don’t have them? What if they use something else like in the Avatar movie?

Zayn was about to ask the question but right before he could there was a thump on the side of the boat. It had grown to be a very familiar sound to both of them. Harry’s command that Niall come back.

“I guess that means I’m leaving,” Niall chuckled a little and sat up.

He looked over at Zayn with a smile and Zayn gave a small smile back.

“Same time tomorrow?”

“Yeah, and uh, yeah. Same time tomorrow,” Niall said one last time before flopping himself over to the railing and flipping into the water.

Zayn smiled after him and let out a puff of air when he heard the familiar splash.

“Same time tomorrow,” Zayn whispered to himself as he stood up.

He brushed off his jeans and began walking back to the main deck to head home.

 

“What do you think it’s like to live up there?” Niall asked Harry as they were approaching the palace.

Harry stopped swimming in favor of staring at his long-time friend. It seemed that Niall was shocking Harry on the daily ever since this whole human thing started happening.

“I don’t want to leave here, you know? I just want to live in both. I think it’d be fun. Zayn Malik is cool. I bet all the humans are.”

“No they aren’t,” Harry grumbled and Niall pretended not to hear him.

“You know what I’ve been thinking about? What if maybe I can do both? You know, split my tail sometimes and then fix it to swim again? Do you think that could work?” Niall asked aloud though he knew the response he would receive.

“NO! Niall you can’t do that!”

“Do what?”

Niall and Harry both shot around to find the owner of the familiar voice. It was Louis. Of course it was Louis, of course he decided to be floating his crabby little self around in this moment. Niall’s heart sank.

“We weren’t talking about anything,” Niall said quickly and Louis narrowed his eyes.

“I know what you’ve been doing, Niall. I can’t let you ruin yourself like this. It was fun, but this is where I draw the line. I’m telling your father,” Louis sighed and spun around, heading back home.

“No! Louis, please! Don’t! I… Dad doesn’t need to know about this, okay? He’ll only worry more and over nothing,” Niall pleaded and raced forward to grab the creature before he could get too far away.

“You’re talking about splitting your tail, Niall. He should be worried about this.”

“But I’m not going to do it! It was just a thought. I would never,” Niall brought Louis up to look into his eyes as he let out a light breath, “I promise, Louis. Just, please don’t tell him.”

Louis narrowed his eyes to look at the prince. He wasn’t supposed to let something this big just slide. Niall knew that. Preventing something like what is currently occurring is the reason Louis was hired in the first place back when Niall first started becoming obsessed with adventures. Niall is actually pretty certain that his father had specifically told Louis not to let anything like this ever happen.

“I’m risking it all for you,” Louis stated as he glared at Niall.

Niall saw Harry squirming in his peripheries, obviously not okay with this verdict.

“I won’t let you down! I promise I won’t!” Niall shouted and brought Louis in to give him a swift kiss before releasing his handler.

“No tail splitting or anything of the sort, you hear me?”

Niall nodded vigorously while a bright smile lit up his face. Relief washed over him in floods. Louis knew, and he wasn’t going to tell his father.

Niall thanked Louis even more times before Louis finally escaped to head back to the palace. Harry was giving Niall an incredulous look when the merman turned to look at his friend.

“I can’t believe this,” Harry murmured, “How can he even do that?”

“Don’t fight it Harry. This is good news.”

“How is this good news? It’s his job to make sure you don’t get killed! That’s it! That’s his job! How can this be anything other than bad?!” Harry began swimming in circles around Niall’s body now as his voice rose.

Harry was a nervous circle swimmer. Niall had stopped getting distracted by it years ago.

“Or, it means that he’s not worried about me being near humans because he knows humans aren’t that bad?” Niall suggested and Harry swam in his circle faster.

“They are bad! All of them are bad! Zayn Malik is going to hurt you! It will, and Louis is just going to let it happen!”

Niall didn’t respond to that, because he suddenly felt a bit guilty. Harry hated humans, and he had every reason to. Really, Niall had only met one human, and even though he was the opposite of everything Niall had ever heard about humans, that didn’t mean all humans were like that.

Niall took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. Harry was still making laps around Niall’s body so Niall reached out a hand to catch his scaly friend so they could go back.

Niall didn’t say anything else for the rest of their trip back to the palace, and he made a mental note to stop talking about Zayn Malik at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just finished finals and my brain is fried and this chapter might actually suck. Please tell me if it does. I love reading everyone's comments! Also, I'm going home for the holidays tomorrow, which will be really nice. Hopefully I'll be able to get in some quality updates to move this story along as well as my other one "The Life Marker Program". 
> 
> Thanks for reading guys! I love you! Happy Holidays!


	6. Chapter 6

It’s really hard to not talk about something when that something is literally the only thing you think about, like, ever. Zayn Malik was the star of every thought that crossed Niall’s mind and with Harry still being a bit sensitive about the whole subject, it was hard for Niall to release all his built-up energy. 

Honestly, Zayn Malik got the worst of it. Niall couldn’t help but spew questions at him constantly when they were together, and he was even patient enough to answer said questions once Niall took a moment to breathe. Still though, even with the vivid descriptions Zayn Malik gave, Niall craved more. He wanted to walk. He wanted to eat something cooked. He wanted to experience life above the ocean, on dry land. He wanted to do everything that he couldn’t and it was beginning to get frustrating.

See, Zayn Malik listened to Niall, and he asked questions about Atlantis, but he didn’t seem as put out as Niall felt every time he realized that these stories were just stories. Niall got the impression that Zayn Malik was happy to hear about his kingdom, but didn’t want to experience it for himself, and Niall could definitely understand that. Atlantis was boring. Nothing ever happened besides the occasional almost human encounter, and Niall had stopped being frightened by those long before he had met Zayn Malik. 

Humans were so much more interesting, and they didn’t live in fear. That’s what Niall really admired about Zayn Malik, he lived his life without constantly looking over his shoulder. He was the top of the food chain on land, and that’s not something Niall could say for himself under water.

“Do you ever wander what it’s like to live in the ocean?” Niall asked one sunny day on top of the boat when conversation started to lull.

“Yeah, all the time since I met you. Seems wicked,” Zayn Malik responded without looking away from the square thing on his lap. He kept running his fancy stick over it, making dark black lines break the solid white surface. He did this a lot, which Niall found oddly fascinating, especially when he’d declare that he was finished and the once solid white square would hold a miniature replica of Niall himself. Zayn Malik had already started marking this square up before Niall had climbed aboard.

“It’s not really though. I mean, it’s fun, but I’d much rather live up here. Seems better,” Niall confessed.

Zayn Malik glanced up from his square now and connected his gaze with Niall, if for only a moment, just to break it again. He had a small hint of a smile on his lips. It was a weird little pull at the edge of his mouth that had Niall staring too intensely to be considered polite. It’s just that, well, Zayn Malik was such a mystery to Niall. 

“Guess we won’t ever really know, huh? Not unless you grow legs or I grow a tail.”

“Yeah,” Niall trailed off and sat up a bit.

There was another pause in conversation and all that could be heard was the scratching of Zayn Malik’s fancy stick onto the square. The ocean breeze was blowing a bit more than normal, but it was comforting. It made the boat rock gently under Niall and gave the illusion that he was drifting through the deep sea. It was much warmer here though.

“So, what do merpeople do to like, you know, show affection?” Zayn Malik seemed hesitant, even as the question escaped him, but Niall perked up.

“Show affection?”

“Like, you know, if you like, like someone,” Zayn Malik trailed off this time and Niall scrunched his face up in confusion.

“I like you,” Niall stated. What did Zayn Malik even mean? Liking someone? You just spend time with them. Was there anything else to do?

“No, I mean like…” Zayn Malik sighed, a bit frustrated, it seemed, and took a breath. He put his square down beside him on the bench and looked Niall dead in the eyes. “When humans are… well, when they like someone more than they like other people… when they think they want to spend their life with someone, they like, they do different things with that person to like, show that they like them more than other people?”

Niall was more confused than before now, but then something clicked in his head.

“Like when we want a little merbaby?” Niall asked, and Zayn Malik smiled and nodded.

“Yeah, something like that.”

“Well, first you have to find someone else who wants a merbaby and then you have to see if you fit together. If you fit then the one with the nub puts it in the other merperson’s hole. It takes a while but eventually the one with the hole lays an egg and buries it so it won’t get hurt. Then the merbaby hatches,” Niall told the story proudly.

Zayn Malik looked really confused, which made Niall shrink back a bit. Had he said something wrong?

“So, not all mermen have nubs and not all mermaids have holes?” Zayn Malik was turning a bit pink as he spoke. Niall thought it was adorable.

“No. Either can have either. I’ve got a hole, but my dad has a nub. We’re both mermen. The aunt I told you about with the son that’s got a split tail? She’s got a nub.”

Zayn Malik looked really confused now. Way more confused than he had been before. Niall decided it would be best if he asked a question in return.

“What about humans? Have they got something like that too?” Niall pressed and Zayn Malik’s lips pulled up a bit at the corners.

“Yeah, something like that.” He repeated what he’d said earlier.

Before Niall could go any further though, he heard the familiar thump on the side of the boat. Time to go.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, right?” Niall asked, as he began dragging himself towards the edge. Zayn Malik smiled and nodded.

“Same time, same place.”

Niall smiled back at him and flopped the short distance to the edge before jumping into the cool water.

 

Zayn was completely gone over this creature. It was so sad, but so… so not sad at the same time. Niall was so carefree and funny and adorable, and it was really hard for Zayn to ignore someone like that. It was getting to the point now where it was actually hurting my studies.

Zayn walked into his room with a sigh, flipping on the lights and glancing around. It was very obvious that he had a new muse. His walls were lined with pictures of Niall. Most were drawn, but there were a few photographs scattered in. Zayn sighed loudly again and pulled his latest picture out of his backpack.

Niall was looking away in this one, off into the ocean. Zayn rarely drew a background behind the merman, but this particular drawing felt like it needed something else once Zayn finished sketching out Niall. Unlike most of Zayn’s other attempts at creating a scene good enough for the merman to be seen in, this one turned out perfectly. He was on the yacht, like every day, and he was sunbathing while he could. His lavender hair was getting a little long now, like he needed a trim, but it was still stiff enough to stick when Niall ran his fingers through it, pressing it into a shaky quiff.

Zayn was possibly more obsessed now than he had been when he’d first seen the glimpses of the merman in the murky waters. He felt nervous every day when he would anchor the boot and wait for Niall to climb aboard, like perhaps today would be the day that Niall decided not to show. When Zayn would watch Niall jump back into the ocean after their meetings, he would always try to commit that to memory, just in case. He’d always say that to himself. Just in case.

Zayn added the new picture to his collection, making a mental note to add color to this one, before gathering up his schoolwork and settling in for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've been gone for a while... I'm sorry, that's really all I can say about that. My class schedule is insane this semester and I have a job to juggle around. It's hard to find time to write for fun, especially since I'm in a creative writing class and I'm constantly writing for those prompts and generally being exhausted from writing by the time my homework is done. 
> 
> I appreciate everyone continuing to take this journey with me into the realm of merpeople and whatnot, but please don't get mad or upset when I'm not updating regularly. I'm trying. I promise I'm trying. Send me a message on tumblr or make a comment on this asking when the update will be, that's fine, but please don't send me some passive aggressive message and expect an update to be the result. It's annoying and it makes me want to not write at all...
> 
> Okay, rant over. I'm sorry you had to endure that. I love you all! I really do. Thank you for your patience and understanding as I attempt to update as frequently as possible!


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